65% of Children struggle on their own. “One question in the survey asked children if anyone assists them with homework and if so, why not? A striking 65% of children interviewed reported that no one in the house was sufficiently educated to do so,” the report said. Nearly two thirds of children in rural South Africa do not have parents educated enough to help them with homework. It sketches a bleak picture of children forced to deal with the many demands that often result in a high dropout rate or too many absents in school.

57% Children affected by HIV/AIDS: Children also had to cope with problems arising from parents suffering from the HIV epidemic, and that “ill-health” among family members was cited by 57% of parents and guardians as reasons for children missing school.

Masizame is structured in three distinct centers that provide the following vital community services for vulnerable boys and girls, many of whom are affected and infected by HIV/AIDS. These three projects operate in a synergist manner and we work with an average of 250 children and youth from the community. Their problems are mostly caused by poverty, lack of safe housing, unemployment, crime, family instability, alcohol and drug abuse, violence, and lack of proper municipality facilities. Most of the children are traumatized and these scars take years to heal.

Masizame’s Three Centers
1. The Masizame Prevention Program Educare Center caters for 100 children on a daily basis under the age of six. It has been established for those children who have no proper supervision, no adequate food and water, no adequate shelter, or medical care. 60% of the vulnerable and high-risk children are related to the previous hardened so-called “street children,” 20% are vulnerable made by HIV/AIDS, 18% deal with neglect and abuse and are in alternative care, 2% are mentally challenged.

2. The Masizame Children’s Shelter is for those children who want to make a change in their lifestyle and they live in the shelter They attend school and they do struggle, but the staff at Masizame gives them the necessary support 24 hours a day. The shelter had fifty children staying there for the past year (average of 28 children daily). Three of them are HIV positive and are on the necessary treatment. They are in the hospital on and off. Two of these children have lost their mothers to the disease and their fathers are on treatment. More children become sick and come straight from the hospital to the Shelter. The staff at Masizame is currently using their office as an area for the sick children because they don’t have adequate space. They are also rendering community services to forty children who are at risk, but are still with their families. The Child and Youth Care Workers at Masizame constantly monitor them.

3. The Masizame Youth Center is for the vulnerable youth. These wounded youth believe that the world is a hostile place, so they behave in a way that triggers hostility in others. When they get a familiar hostile response, their beliefs are confirmed. 18 of these youth have graduated from the Youth Center and are well-respected members in the community. 21 of the youth are still in need of guidance and support. The Masizame staff supports them and gives them the necessary after care. The Youth Center’s main focuses are Skill Training and Job Training in partnership with other role players. Since, most of these youth either have a primary education or none at all, but are now too old to go back to school. The Youth Center also provides After School Care and Safe Haven for an average of 40 Primary and High School Learners with no proper supervision at home.